Comal Y Canela fundraiser

You can help Comal Y Canela, the country’s best Mexican restaurant, raise money for its informal food bank, which hands out groceries no questions asked. If you have any money to spare, I know it will go a long way.

Every week, Yasmen De Leon helps 125 families with bags of dried goods, fruits and vegetables, and eggs, all handed out on a table outside her tiny restaurant.

Charmaine Baan, the organizer, has raised $1471 of $4000 so far.

BlogTO made a video about her food bank, and TVO has a wonderful article about Yasmen De Leon:

De Leon and her family left Mexico when she was five. They lived in the United States for four years before moving to Canada, where they spent six years waiting for refugee status.

“We went to a food bank,” she says. “And they couldn’t help us, because we didn’t have Canadian ID.”

The family went back to Mexico, then headed to Guatemala, where her father was murdered. Her mother packed her five children into the car and drove to Canada.

“My mother was a single mom of five kids,” De Leon says. “Many times, we had to go to the food bank. And, yet, she never denied anyone a plate of food. All my friends ate at our house. I remember, one time, we made peanut butter, pita, and Cheerio sandwiches. Because that’s all we had. If we see our neighbours like our children, then we would be much better as a society and a community.”